{"id":1542977,"date":"2025-06-21T21:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1542977"},"modified":"2025-06-21T21:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:30:00","slug":"trump-says-us-intel-assessment-of-irans-nuclear-program-was-wrong-tulsi-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/trump-says-us-intel-assessment-of-irans-nuclear-program-was-wrong-tulsi-responds\/1542977\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says US Intel Assessment Of Iran’s Nuclear Program “Was Wrong”, Tulsi Responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Says US Intel Assessment Of Iran’s Nuclear Program “Was Wrong”, Tulsi Responds<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

President Donald Trump said on June 20 that his director of national intelligence\u2019s assessment in March that Iran had yet to decide on building a nuclear weapon was wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump made the remarks to reporters on Friday while standing next to Air Force One at the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

The president was asked about the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s assessment that it had no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear warhead before Israel\u2019s strikes on its military and nuclear sites last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, then my intelligence community is wrong,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Trump said. \u201cWho in the intelligence community said that?\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was told that it was his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who gave those remarks to lawmakers in March, Trump replied, \u201cShe was wrong.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After Trump\u2019s comments, Gabbard took to social media to share a clip of her March testimony to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and accused the media of twisting her words.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,\u201d<\/strong> Gabbard wrote<\/a>. \u201cAmerica has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can\u2019t happen, and I agree.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/mYxjpJY2ud<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 20, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Gabbard said in her testimony at the time that the intelligence community had determined that Iran was not currently building a nuclear weapon. However, as part of that assessment, she said there were alarming signals that warranted continuous monitoring for any change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The signs Gabbard mentioned included indications that Iranian decision-makers who wanted the country to have nuclear arms were becoming increasingly emboldened in their pursuit, and that Iran\u2019s enriched uranium stockpiles were at \u201cunprecedented\u201d levels for a state without nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

In remarks to reporters, Trump reiterated that he believes, based on the quantity of enriched uranium that Iran currently possesses, that the regime could develop a nuclear bomb \u201cwithin a matter of months.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t let that happen,\u201d Trump said, adding that he believes his current military intelligence is more accurate than what then-President George W. Bush used as a pretext to invade Iraq in 2003, which Trump opposed.<\/p>\n

He was asked what makes the current situation different than the one 22 years ago, and Trump said: \u201cWell, there were no weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]. I never thought there were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a nuclear age [in 2003], but nothing like it is today. And it looked like I\u2019m right about the material that they\u2019ve gathered already,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The United Nations\u2019 nuclear watch group said early last month that Iran had more than 900 pounds of 60 percent enriched uranium at the time. To make a nuclear bomb, 90 percent enriched uranium is required.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The group said that if Iran chooses, it could enrich enough stockpiled uranium to make a bomb in a matter of days, but building and testing a warhead could take much longer.<\/p>\n

In response to comments from Iran\u2019s foreign minister earlier on Friday, who said if the United States is serious about negotiations, it must first call Israel to order a stop to the airstrikes, Trump said it\u2019s difficult to make that request now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody is winning, it\u2019s a little bit harder to do than if somebody\u2019s losing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re ready, willing, and able, and we\u2019ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump said he is giving Iran two weeks to \u201csee whether or not people come to their senses\u201d before he makes a final decision on whether to involve the U.S. military in the conflict after Israel\u2019s surprise airstrikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

The president said he believes that Europe is not going to be able to help in negotiations with Iran to end the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say this, it\u2019s very hard to stop when you look at it. Israel\u2019s doing well in terms of war, and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well. It\u2019s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

As to whether Iran should be allowed to continue enriching uranium up to 3.76 percent for electricity production, which was one of the conditions of the Iran nuclear deal that Trump exited in 2018, the president suggested that Iran doesn\u2019t need that energy source due to its large oil reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know why they need that for civilian work,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Trump said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re sitting on one of the largest oil piles anywhere in the world, it\u2019s a little bit hard to see why you’d need that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether an aerial campaign in Iran would be enough, or if he would send in ground forces, Trump said: \u201cI\u2019m not going to talk about ground forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing you want to do is ground forces.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 06\/21\/2025 – 17:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/trump-says-us-intel-assessment-irans-nuclear-program-was-wrong-tulsi-responds<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump Says US Intel Assessment Of Iran’s Nuclear Program “Was Wrong”, Tulsi Responds Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times, President Donald Trump said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1542978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6toJ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/image20-202025-06-21T123231.941-q5nlm2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1542977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1542978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1542977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1542977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1542977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}